“Last year my daughter was introduced to multiplication in her multiage classroom, and it just didn’t click. Trying to memorize those times tables seemed impossible, because she didn’t understand what they meant. Now it has been reintroduced, and she’s taken off with it. She’s truly ready for it now.”

Pat Berry

Parent, Bellevue School District

This is a great example of how a child’s readiness to learn certain skills or concepts is so critical to his/her ability to succeed. This readiness is the foundation of what is called developmental appropriate practice or curriculum, and it is the driving force of the multiage classroom. Mixed-age classrooms have been around for years. However, most of what we saw in the past were actually “split grade” classes, created to balance uneven numbers of students and to offer separate programs for each grade level. In contrast, multiage classrooms are built around specific practices that recognize and support the individual developing abilities of each student.

These developmental practices are perhaps best viewed through the lens of a multiage family. Your child probably learned first to crawl, then to walk, then to climb and run. Your child learned to make sounds, then words, then sentences. These skills occurred because your child’s brain was developing, one layer at a time, allowing for a natural progression of growth. You probably noticed that other children, siblings, or playmates learned these skills at different times but in pretty much the same order.

So it is with formal education. When the brain is ready to accept a new level of skills and concepts, those concepts are learned efficiently and successfully. It the brain is not ready for particular concepts, confusion and frustration replace success. (How many of us remember encouraging those first steps? That encouragement did not replace readiness!) Teachers, therefore, strive to introduce curriculum materials only after a child has attained the level of mental ability needed to master them. Each child’s developmental timetable is individual, although there are ranges of normal (as is the case of your child’s first steps).

Journal Writing

Journal writing is an excellent example of how a whole-class activity can end itself to the developmental level of each student. In writing about personal experiences, a beginning elementary-aged student may start the year by drawing pictures; later he/she may write the initial sound of important words. Over time, journal entries reflect the child’s growing capabilities in writing mechanics, descriptive abilities, and the ability to think about and reflect on experiences.

Developmental education also understands that children need to be able to connect what they learn to their world. Skills need to be learned in the contest of knowledge be so that children understand why they are learning the skills and can attach meaning to them. It is also important for children to develop ownership in their learning, which happens when they are able to take what they learn and mix it with knowledge and skills they already have. The knowledge produced by this process ensures that each child finds relevance to what is learned. It recognizes that every child brings prior experiences to the learning process that help shape how they see the world and interpret new experiences and knowledge. It validates and celebrates the uniqueness of each child, while at the same time expanding the skills, knowledge, and awareness necessary to academic growth.

Washington has a wonderful resource in the variety of its natural habitats, which provide an excellent backdrop for learning in context. These resources are within easy reach of many classrooms. Studying salmon, for instance, can bring reading, writing, and math to life when children use these skills to follow the day-to day development from hatching to spawning. While the skill levels of the children will vary in a multiage classroom (or any classroom, for that matter), all students can be reading and writing, researching and analyzing, and producing evidence of their understanding of a common and exciting theme, yet at levels which are individualized so that they challenge but do not frustrate.

Some children learn best by seeing, others by listening, some by touching. All children learn best by doing. Developmental practice allows for a variety of learning styles and creates opportunities for children to be active participants, rather than passive listeners. It is also important to recognize that the way a child relates to those opportunities is impacted by his or her previous experiences. Multiage classrooms structure learning environments that take these different life experiences into account, along with developmental readiness.

Some teachers have found that when working with Legos to teach physics and simple machines, girls need time to experiment on their own because most of them haven’t had the long-term experience many of the boys have had with these kinds of building materials. When girls and boys have been mixed together for this activity, teachers have seen the boys simply take over- not being mean – but in enthusiasm because they are so familiar with this kind of activity. The girls tend to draw back and become watchers. With this catch-up time, the girls have gone on to be successful in this typically male arena.

One of the obvious benefits of developmental education is that the child becomes an active learner who is fully involved with his/her education. A developmental classroom seeks to challenge a child’s interest and understanding, while at the same time match skills to the child’s developing abilities. Learning in this kind of environment expands a child’s world, increasing his/her ranges of interest and motivation for learning essential basic skills.

Active learners such as these are found to take more responsibility for their won learning and to adapt more readily to different school environments as they progress through elementary, middle and high school.

Another goal of developmental education is to avoid the “skill deficits” that may occur when trying to make children master academic skills for which they are not ready. Remember that the brain activates itself in layers, with each layer able to handle more and more sophisticated skills and concepts. Naturally, we want children to plug each piece of learning into the best system for that particular job. If the right system isn’t yet available or working smoothly, the brain may adapt by using a “lower” system that might never allow for complete understanding and use of that skill. It would be like asking your child to walk without his toes; he will walk, but he may never run.

Let’s take the example of the child trying to learn multiplication facts. She didn’t “get it” and became confused and frustrated. The teacher saw this and wisely backed off. Now her systems are ready for this, and she’s flying with it. What would have happened if the teacher had continued to force multiplication last year? She probably would have eventually learned her multiplication tables. What she also would have learned was that this was something she was not very good at and that it was useless knowledge she had acquired. She would not have known how to use those facts she worked so hard to memorize.

If the right system isn’t yet available or working smoothly, the brain may adapt by using a “lower” system that might never allow for complete understanding and use of that skill.

Some children of the same age in her classroom last year may have done very well with multiplication. Others may not be ready until later. This variability among children is the norm, not the exception, and is precisely why multiage classrooms fit so well in the developmental approach to education. There is no “middle” in a multiage classroom, just as there is no “middle” in a multiage family. This has been replaced by an understanding of the wide range of student abilities and needs. Curriculum that is rich in content, encourages creativity, provides hands-on learning experiences, and recognizes differing levels and experiences offers and ideal setting in which to meet the educational need of each individual child.

Common Questions & Answers

It can. As noted earlier, even graded classrooms contain differing achievement levels that may span four or more grade levels. However, teachers report that they are more likely to address individual needs in a multiage classroom because the changing structure has led to instructional practices that are more developmentally appropriate.

No. Washington’s Education Reform Act, passed in 1993, requires that high and uniform expectations- know as essential academic learning requirements- be developed for all students; and after the year 2000, they must be met prior to receiving a high school diploma. It leaves specific instructional strategies (such as multiage grouping) as a decision to be made by local school communities.

Will developmental practice help student master the essential academic learning requirements?

Developmental practice is very consistent with the expectations that will be required of students and the system that will measure achievement. For example, the new system recognizes that not all students reach achievement targets at the same time. It is being designed to accommodate the different amounts of time needed by different students.

Won’t students get bored if they are with the same teacher for more than one year?

Parents and teachers alike report that multiple years with the same teachers have multiple benefits:

*Students are often partnered with a mentor buddy the first year to learn classroom expectations and procedures, which can take on greater meaning when seen through the eyes of a fellow student. The experience of mentoring another student offers social benefits (just as siblings learn from one another in a “multiage family”) as well as the academic confidence that comes from being a teacher.

*Continuing students do not waste time at the beginning of the year while the teacher determines their achievement levels; they frequently are ready to “take off where they left off” in the summer. They are familiar with the classroom routine and teacher expectations, thus lessening anxieties that frequently accompany students at the beginning of anew year.

*Teachers find that the familiarity they have with the continuing students and their families enables them to get to know the new students more quickly, saving precious instructional time.

*Tolerance for individual differences is high in multiage classrooms because these differences are expected and treated casually. This increased respect is often seen on the playground and in other social situations, making school a safer place for all students.

Anderson, Robert H. and Pavan, Barbara Nelson, Technomic Publishing Company, 1993

Katz, Lilian G., Evangelou, Demetra Hartman, Jeanette Allison, The National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1990

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